A 47-year-old lorry driver has died in hospital after being knocked down by a tanker on the M74 on Wednesday.

It was reported that the man got out of his lorry to adjust straps on his trailer when he was struck on the hardshoulder near junction 7 at Larkhall.

The driver was taken to Wishaw General where he died a short time later.

Following the accident, police shut off the southbound carriageway for five hours.

Junctions six and seven were closed for a number of hours and diversions were put in place causing traffic chaos.

Southbound traffic was diverted through Hamilton and Larkhall and rejoined the M74 at Canderside Toll.

One Hamilton-bound commuter said: “A journey that usually would take me 20 minutes took one and a half hours. “I must have been stationary on the outside lane of the motorway for about an hour.

“It shows you how a bad accident can bring things to a standstill not only on the M74, but also Hamilton town centre.

“Traffic on main roads in central Hamilton was at a snail’s pace due to the amount of diverted traffic coming through the town.

“It was a frustrating experience.”

Another commuter travelling northbound said traffic there came to a standstill at Canderside Toll.

“There were two lorries around 200 and 300 feet apart near the accident scene and as many as 20 police officers carrying out investigations.

There was no sign of any damage to the lorries.”

“Traffic began to pick up again once you passed the scene, only for queues to begin again at the Hamilton turn off.

“Traffic was gridlocked on the inside lane of Hamilton Road as diverted southbound traffic made its way to Carlisle Road and on to Larkhall.

“Traffic there was crawling along at best.”

A Wishaw motorist travelling to work in Hamilton said: “My journey time to work this morning was doubled.

“At first I thought there was a problem in Hamilton town centre, but I later heard in traffic reports about the accident on the M74.

Hamilton Road slowly came to a standstill in the inside lane as I approached the roundabout at Asda, Hamilton.

“The line of traffic coming off the M74 was packed full with various vehicles.”

A police spokeswoman speaking after the accident said: “Police and ambulance attended the scene.

A man appeared to have been struck by a vehicle while on the hard shoulder. “The Strathclyde Police helicopter was called out to assist with investigations.”

A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council said: “When incidents like this occur on the motorway, there are alert systems in place whereby the police notify us of the closure.

“This can obviously lead to a build-up of traffic on local roads but unfortunately there are limits to what we can do to combat this.

“Because of the unplanned and temporary nature of these types of closures, it is difficult to implement full diversionary signage as soon as an incident occurs.

“However, the trunk road operator, Amey, were able to set out diversion signs shortly after the incident and the council assisted by manually controlling the traffic signals at Motherwell Road roundabout and at Townhead Street/Blackswell Lane to improve traffic flow.”

A lorry was involved in an accident on Windmill Street in Motherwell yesterday. The incident occurred about 11am and the road was closed for a number of hours. The driver was taken to Wishaw General Hospital and according to the police was treated for very minor injuries.